eat away

verb

Etymology: From eat + away.

1. To physically corrode or erode (something) gradually.

   “The river bank had been eaten away over the years by the flood water.”

   “To eate avvay dead fleſh, take Stubbe-vvort, and folde it vp in a red Docke leafe, or red VVort leafe, and ſo roſte it in the hot embers and lay it hot to any ſore, and it vvill fret avvay all the dead fleſh; […]”

2. To destroy (something) gradually by an ongoing process.

   “At your Table I vvill proue / If I can eate avvay my loue.”

   “[T]hus does politeneſs ſport vvith truth, and eating avvay the ſincerity and humanity natural to man, produce the fine gentleman.”

3. Chiefly followed by at: of a circumstance, incident, etc.: to cause (someone) to feel guilty, troubled, or worried; to bother (see eat away at).

   “The guilt of having lied was eating away at him.”

   “Not confessing that I had stolen the money ate away at me until I could no longer sleep.”